Re: Bug#239952: kernel-source-2.6.4: qla2xxx contains non-free firmware

[Daniel Martin <martin@snowplow.org>]

John Hasler <john@dhh.gt.org> writes:

> Nathanael Nerode writes:
>> (2) drivers/firmware released only "under the GPL" as binary blobs, where
>> the copyright holders have secret source code hidden away somewhere.
>> These cannot legally be distributed, at all, because the terms of the GPL
>> cannot be satisfied.
>
> Repeating myself because I think it is an important point:  these _can_ be
> distributed if the copyright owners give explicit permission.
>
> However, they are not GPL-compatible (nor DFSG compliant).

Well, in the sense that you can take any of the pieces to which you do
have source out and use it in any GPL manner you desire, those bits
are GPL-compatible.

But yes, the whole is not DFSG-free.  As such, I really think this
falls into Nathaneal's category (3).